Learning from Dr. Burrack is great because his passion is enlightening and contagious! He motivated and inspired me going into a new school year, and I can honestly say I have a new understanding of our standards and feel better equipped than ever.

I recognized early on as a public school orchestra teacher that, although I was giving my very best effort, I was not always able to get the results Stephen gave me as his high school orchestra student. I reached out to Stephen for mentorship; I visited his classes to see best practices in action, met with him for tips and insight through score study, and finally had him join several of our rehearsals as a clinician. These experiences equipped me with the tools and expectations that helped me to elevate my teaching effectiveness.

Dr. Fred Burrack has great chops and demeanor in rehearsing bands. He is extremely knowledgeable, engaging, and gets the most out of the ensemble. Dr. Burrack is a fantastic clinician!

The way Stephen explained things always had the right balance of technical information and pure magic. And the results were stunning…we sounded inspired and we WERE inspired. It was the kind of group experience you usually read about in a glossy magazine or a novel, but here we were, living it in real life.

Dr. Burrack’s in-service absolutely provided what we were hoping to address. He gave us a lot to think about and some concrete ideas we can start implementing. Our district’s feedback is all positive. Thank you so much!

The combination of passion and knowledge that Stephen Nelson brings to music education is exceedingly rare. To this day, I find myself passing along knowledge to my students that he imparted to me, and I revisit some of his profound wisdom while working on my own playing.